Precision was a vigilante.
The most famous and well known vigilante at that.
His costume was simple. He wore a white suit, a plain white mask, white gloves and shoes, and a white half top hat.
It was all cotton, no armor, no protection, just pure comfort.
Currently three men surrounded him. Each carried a ray gun set to maximum, which meant it would shoot high impact at close range and absolutely annihilate whoever it hit.
“You’re not Precision,” the big one said. “What would Precision be doing walking around this area?”
“I just wanted to go for a walk, fellas.”
“Yeah? And I just wanna see what’s in your wallet prowler, why don’t you pop it open real quick?”
“Prowler? What is that, a new slang term?”
“Pockets,” one of them yelled. “Empty ‘em”
“Prowler? Is that like dawg or homie? I like it.”
“Aye bro, empty your pockets before we empty your lungs,” one of the men pushed their gun into his ribs.
“Ooh, that’s good. Poetic even. Say something else.”
“Man fuck you!” The man pressed the trigger of his ray gun.
The gun was shoved into Precision’s ribs. It should have put a small gold ball size hole in his chest. He should have been bleeding open on the floor.
And yet nothing happened.
“What--”
The man pulled back his gun, finger still on the trigger and he happened to aim towards one of his compatriots.
And the ray gun, as if making up for the few moments of unresponsiveness, fired.
The man behind Precision suddenly had a bit less of a brain than he had a second ago. He slumped and fell over onto the floor.
“Man what the fuck!”
The two men backed up.
The one who had threatened Precision was looking at his gun, then the fellow on the ground, then to his gun, and then to the Precision, who stood there silently, smiling like nothing had happened.
“Ray guns can jam you know. They say its rare but I’ve seen it happen so many times to so many people. I wouldn’t trust those things if I were you.”
“No way-- no fucking way man. You’re really--”
“I did try to tell you,” Precision shrugged.
“Please man, we-- we didn’t know.”
“Well, that was sort of the point fellas. I don’t really bother over robbers, but murderers? Well, that is something entirely different.”
“Please man, I don’t wanna die. Please man, I'll do anything!”
The guns were lowered and both men looked at him with absolute terror.
He hadn't done anything. Well, he hadn’t, his wish was another thing entirely. He could control it to a degree. He could keep people safe, limit its consequences, but when someone came after his life, what was he to do?
He dodged, like any person would. At least his wish did.
He made chance do all it could to prevent his death, and sometimes there were consequences.
There was blood all around him. Brain matter, fluids, bits of human beings littered the floor.
And yet he was there, still clean and untouched.
“You can wait here for the cops to come, or you can run and I’ll come after you. Those are your choices.”
The two men looked at each other for a second before nodding and sitting down on the curb.
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As if on cue, three cop cars came around the corner.
The three men had been wishers. All Minor A’s, but still capable.
Precision walked away.
The two men stared at his back for a few moments, no doubt wondering if they could outrun the cop cars.
“Don’t do it!” Precision yelled, killing any hope with his words.
The two men hunkered down and waited for the police to come arrest them. They told them the honest truth, because they were dealing with Precision and no one crossed that bastard.
Strangely, or not so strangely, no one noticed Precision walking down the street. No one bothered to look his way. A child across the street wanted to, but for some reason dust blew into his eyes. Cameras glitched temporarily, people got phone calls and distractions, the whole world seemed to be given a reason to just look the other way.
Precision took off his mask and turned his coat inside out.
And no one saw a thing.
Incoming call: The Wolf
Thomas frowned. He could deny the call.
But it was The Wolf.
He shoved his headphones on and answered.
“What?” He answered.
“I need you in Oak City.”
“And I need your mother on her knees.”
“There’s something going on there and I need you to throw it off,” The Wolf replied, ignoring his quips as he always did.
“Are you in Oak City?”
“Yes?”
“Fully there? Or do you mean you have a swarm of nanobots that you pilot from time to time?”
“I’m dealing with the new recruit.”
Precision smiled. He could have guessed that, and had Wolf not just told him, he would have guessed that. But now that his curiosity was sated, he wouldn’t have bothered to guess.
That was one aspect of his wish that most people didn’t think about. He could just guess things and he would be right. He could shoot a man walking down the street, and he would turn out to be one of the worst criminals in the city.
If he had guessed what Wolf was doing, he might have been too accurate. He might have stumbled upon information the Wolf didn’t want him to know.
So the Wolf told him, and so his curiosity was sated.
“INOS?”
“Yes.”
“Is he any good?”
“He can keep up with Paragon in speed and he’s willing to join the front lines with the rest of us up here. Would you like to join him?”
“I finished my shift three weeks ago and I’m not due for another two months, so no thank you. Isn’t it quiet up there anyway? After that last colony of star eaters, I’d think we’d be due a few more years of peace.”
“Its settled down,” The Wolf replied. “But INOS almost ran into another colony, one that was missed in our initial search. We took care of it.”
“Paragon?” Precision asked.
“Along with The Toon,” Wolf added.
Precision let out a low whistle.
“That bad?”
“It was a budding colony and we wanted to make sure that none of them made it out alive.”
Precision nodded.
Star eaters were what they sounded like. Giant neutron star sized balls of cosmic flesh that went from one star to another. A biological Dyson Sphere that would quickly drain the light from a young star within a matter of days.
They were an in-universe threat, but that didn’t make them any less dangerous. They could run through a galaxy within a year and burn through a galaxy cluster within two decades. They multiplied like crazy and even Paragon needed more than one punch to kill them.
“I heard the guy ran out of the universe and almost fell into the Dark.”
“Yes,” Wolf replied.
“Is he doing okay?”
“He ran away from it once Paragon helped him back. Then he discovered the colony of star eaters. He helped take them out and did decently against them. It let him test his new wish and relax. He’s doing better now.”
The Dark was something awful. Precision had seen it a few times now and each time it traumatized him. It was… it was everything you didn’t want to happen.
And within the Major S ranks of this universe and all the others, it was known as The Hate of God.
“He met one of the others too, through him for a loop but he’s doing fine now. He’s happy actually.”
“Happy? After seeing that thing?”
“He said he thought his racing days were over and that he was glad there were others he raced against. All the speedsters have taken a liking to him.”
It was rare for the Wolf to talk that much about someone.
“You like him?” Precision asked.
“He’s got potential.”
Well that was about as big of a compliment as anyone could get out of that serious bastard.
“What’s going on in Oak City anyway?”
“Do you know about the Hyde Project?”
“That thing the Surgeon was working on?”
“Yes. Someone stole a sample and they’re moving it somewhere within the city.”
“And you couldn’t catch them?”
“Five Major S tinkers, all plotters and Holmes-types. I wasn’t on world and they took advantage of that to do so. They have another Major S controller and one Major A tinker set up for the fall. I’m already after the controller and the Tinker is useless but you and the Surgeon can take down the Major S Tinkers.”
“What type of Major S are we talking about here?”
“Single wish, low combat--”
“Small fries,” Precision frowned. “And I thought it would be fun or something.”
The public believed that Major S was the highest anyone could go and while that was the case to a degree, there was a world far beyond even that. Major S was the leap out of the pond and into the ocean.
“Alright, book me a ticket.”
Precision smiled.
Oak City was a nice place, and he was looking for a vacation spot. It wasn’t Hawaii but it would do the trick.
This is a sort of expansion onto the world. I hope it doesn't scare people off, but oh well it was planned.
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